[0:00] Good morning. It's my privilege this morning to be able to open God's Word with you. And we continue in the book of Genesis this morning, specifically in chapter 27,! And then we'll leak into chapter 28 as well, the first section of 28.
[0:21] But before we stand and read it, let me just tie into what we've heard over the last few weeks. Just a couple of points I would want you to remember as we look into chapter 27.
[0:38] The first is this. You would remember that Rebecca was barren, and she was barren for quite a number of years. Isn't it interesting that Sarah was barren? Now, here we see that same pattern again.
[0:53] Rebecca's barren. And Isaac prays for her, and she received child, and she had twins. And they were struggling. There was a battle going on within her, so much so that she diligently, fervently prayed to God.
[1:10] I guess worried maybe what was going on. She didn't want to lose her children after having waited so long and being blessed to be pregnant. And the Lord said this to her as she prayed.
[1:23] It's in chapter 25. It says, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger.
[1:38] And I want you to see, remember as well, this truth is that the boys grew up, and they were extremely different. Here in the Scripture it says, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field.
[1:58] When Jonathan preached on this, a man's man. He was a tough guy, an outdoorsman. And then we see that Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents.
[2:08] So his personality, his interests, vastly different than Esau's. And we see conflict in the family.
[2:19] We see a little bit of a picture into the family as we read the very next verse. It says, Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game.
[2:29] He was a man that enjoyed the hunt, and he would bring back the spoils of the hunt. And Isaac loved that. And Rebecca loved Jacob.
[2:44] Gosh, I don't think it's healthy to have favorites, is it? And yet we see this dysfunction spelled out in Scriptures here. What we also see about Esau is this, is that Esau despised his birthright.
[3:02] You remember the scenario where he came back famished from a hunt, didn't have any food, was starving. His brother had lentil soup, maybe had a little more than that.
[3:14] He said, please give it to me. He said, I will if. If you sell me or give me your birthright, then I'll give you all the food you want. And he despised his birthright, meaning he wasn't really interested in spiritual things.
[3:29] And then we see this promise of God to Isaac. You know, God promised Abraham, if we were to look back in Genesis 12, just this beautiful promise of how he would use Abraham to bless the whole earth, to bless nations, to bless peoples all around the earth.
[3:53] There's a land promise involved. We will multiply you. And here we see again that he's now promising to Isaac, and it sounds very similar to what he said to Abraham.
[4:08] This is God continuing to accomplish his covenant promise, and he's choosing to do it through Isaac. And he says to Isaac, as the Lord appeared to him, sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you.
[4:23] For to you and your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. The blessing that he received from God was powerful, a reminder to him of what he had blessed or what he had promised in the life of Abraham his father.
[4:46] And then one more thing I want you to see. Last week when we finished, there was a little caveat of truth there that really is going to play into what we're looking at in chapter 27.
[4:57] So at the end of 26, in the last verse, it says that, or the last two verses, so when Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beri, the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basmath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite.
[5:16] And they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. So I see here a lack of leadership, spiritual leadership in the life of Isaac.
[5:30] Would not Isaac have counseled his son to not marry with the women of this land, this land of Canaan?
[5:41] Which is exactly what Abraham instructed his servant to do for Isaac. to send a go to the land, and you find a wife, a wife that is a part of our people, and bring her back.
[5:58] And we see that it was Rebekah, and we are part of that. We've seen how that story has played itself out. And now here we are at chapter 27. And so in honor of God's word, I would ask if you're able to please stand as we read chapter 27 and the first part of chapter 28.
[6:19] It's a little bit long, so hang in there. When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his oldest son, and said to him, My son.
[6:32] And he answered, Here I am. He said, Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.
[6:59] Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.
[7:12] Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.
[7:24] Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father. Such as he loves. And you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies.
[7:38] But Jacob said to Rebekah's mother, Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.
[7:53] His mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go, bring them to me. So he went and he took them, and he brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved.
[8:06] Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And the skins of the young goat she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
[8:21] And she put the delicious food and bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went in to his father and said, My father. And he said, Here I am. Who are you, my son?
[8:33] Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?
[8:47] He answered, Because the Lord your God granted me success. Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.
[8:59] So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands.
[9:11] So he blessed him. He said, Are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am. Then he said, Bring it near to me, that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.
[9:21] So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near, and he kissed him, and Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, See, the smell of my son is the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
[9:42] May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you.
[9:57] Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from hunting.
[10:11] He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let my father rise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me. His father Isaac said to him, Who are you?
[10:23] He answered, I'm your son, your firstborn, Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently. And he said, Who was it then that hunted the game and brought it to me?
[10:37] And I ate of it before you came. And I have blessed him, yes, and he shall be blessed. As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, Bless me, even me also, my father.
[10:54] But he said, Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing. Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times.
[11:05] He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants.
[11:21] And with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son? Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.
[11:32] And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And then Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high.
[11:45] By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
[11:59] And Esau said to himself, The days of mourning for my father are approaching, then I will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah.
[12:10] So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice.
[12:20] Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, and Haran, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him.
[12:35] Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day? Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.
[12:47] If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him.
[12:59] You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethul, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
[13:13] God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of peoples. May he give the blessing of Abram to you and to your offspring with you that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham.
[13:30] Thus Isaac sent Jacob away and he went to Padan-Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethul, the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau's mother. Esau saw Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan-Aram to take a wife from there.
[13:47] And that he had blessed him, and that as he blessed him, he directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. And that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Padan-Aram.
[14:02] So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac, his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael's, Abraham's son, the sister of Naboth.
[14:17] That's a long one. Pray with me right quick. Father, we love your word. And I just ask this morning that you would teach us from your word this morning.
[14:30] Show us what you would have us see. Help us to live in a way that would bring honor and glory to your name. And I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'll start with a quick story this morning.
[14:49] When I was much younger, I had a good friend of mine, Butch Floyd, who was gracious to me. I used to play a lot of golf and he was a member at the Atlanta Athletic Club, which is a really nice golf course in Atlanta.
[15:05] And he invited me often to play golf with him and member guests and just other rounds. I was a youth pastor. His son was in my youth ministry. That's how we connected.
[15:16] And he just wanted to bless me. He did it in many ways. On one particular occasion, he called and said, Hey, can you play this week? I'm like, sure. He said, I got somebody else that's going to play with us.
[15:27] I'm like, okay, cool. And he said, yes, one of the Atlanta Braves. Now, the Atlanta Braves started their run in 1991, if you're a fan, and they went 14 straight years.
[15:39] But before they started the run, this would have been in the very late 80s, this was the guy who was the best pitcher on the Atlanta Braves. And I don't know if you're like me. For people that are famous, I have this thought in my mind that they're probably going to be a little stuck up.
[15:58] And they're going to view me as being a second-class citizen, and they're not going to really want to talk to me or show any interest. I don't know why, but that's just in my mind that my expectation was that the guy's going to be hard to talk to.
[16:13] He's going to be aloof. He's going to be, you know, just a little proud of himself for what he's accomplished. And so my expectation as I walk into it, I'm like, I don't want to ride in a cart with him.
[16:25] You ride with him, and I'm going to ride over here. You know what was interesting is his name's Jose Alvarez. He played 88, 89 in that time frame. And, man, he was the most pleasant guy to be around, very gracious.
[16:41] I mean, he didn't wait for me to come up and introduce myself. He came to me to introduce himself and asked me about my family and asked me how I was doing. Just very, very gracious guy.
[16:52] He was humble. He didn't seem to have a silver spoon in his mouth, so to speak. Down to earth, gracious, and not ashamed of his faith in Christ.
[17:06] And I was shocked. And not only did I play the one time, played multiple times with him. And each time it proved to be real. It wasn't something he was putting on.
[17:17] But my expectations were totally wrong. I don't know if you've ever had that experience. That one, in this case, was very pleasant, that my expectations were wrong.
[17:27] Well, let me share a verse out of the New Testament before we really dig into the text here that ties into this concept of expectation. In Matthew 22, Jesus is talking to the Sadducees.
[17:41] They're trying to trip him up. And they're asking him about life after. They say there is no life after. It just ceased to exist. And he's saying, no, no, no, no. Do you not know what God said to Moses at the burning bush?
[17:56] Do you remember what he says? He says, I'm the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And in my mind, that God would say that they're mine. These men are mine.
[18:09] Especially when I was a younger believer, in my mind, I'm thinking, these guys must be honoring to God. They must walk in a God-honoring way. They must be faithful men that God would say they're mine.
[18:24] That was my expectation. And lo and behold, two of those men we see in bold view this morning. And we see this family that is a wreck.
[18:36] It is a mess. We see this, the ugly warts of sin in bold view this morning. In the lives of two of those three men that God said, I'm the God of Abraham and Isaac whom we'll see and Jacob whom we'll see.
[18:52] But what we're going to see is men that are less than faithful and a mess.
[19:04] Their life is a mess in many ways. There's friction in this family that is palpable as we read this. Did you feel it? Look with me, starting in verse, I'm on the wrong page, starting in verse 1 of 27.
[19:19] I mentioned before, why is it that Abraham, being the spiritual leader of his family, would allow his son to go off and marry Canaanite women when he knows they're not supposed to do that as people of God?
[19:34] Where's the leadership? And Isaac, here it says, Isaac was old. I looked at, if you do a little biblical math, you'll come up with, or at least some have come up with, he's roughly 137 years old now.
[19:51] And it's evident that something's going on because he's lost his vision. His eyes aren't working. He evidently has lost his taste buds because they aren't working.
[20:01] I'll tell you why in just a minute. And he is wanting to set his house in order, it seems. He feels like the day of his death is just around the corner.
[20:13] Even in verse 4, you see, he says, I want to bless you before I die. As if he feels like his death is imminent. So he's trying to set everything in order.
[20:24] He wants to name his, he wants to give a blessing to his son with the birthright. The son that he chooses. And isn't it interesting?
[20:34] He says, he calls Esau. And he says, hey, Esau, do me a favor.
[20:46] I don't know when I'm going to die, but you know what I crave? I crave the food from the deer. He doesn't say deer here, but he's out in the field.
[20:56] I said, please go hunt and go kill one of the beasts that you normally kill. And could you prepare it and bring it to me so that I can enjoy this meal before I bless you?
[21:07] Because I want to give you my ultimate blessing. And so what does he do? He takes off Esau. We'll talk about Esau in a minute. He takes off. Do you hear what he's attempting and desiring to do here?
[21:23] We heard earlier that Isaac loved Esau. Why? Because he liked the game. I mean, it was... So he plays favorites because his belly is full, because he likes the way the thing tastes.
[21:38] And honestly, do you notice this? He said, take your weapons and your quiver and your bow and go to the field and hunt game. He's like, you're my warrior, man.
[21:50] Go out and fight. I mean, you've always been successful. Can you do me a favor and go do it now? It's as if he's really... He has this idea of manhood and he has this desire to bless the one whom he loves the most, that is Esau, because Esau is a man's man.
[22:10] And he likes that in a man. Whereas the other son, Jacob, is more of a... The Bible doesn't tell us a ton, but it does say that he tends to be in the tent.
[22:22] He's not an outdoorsman. We can imply from the text. He's a little soft. If you were to put the two up against each other and say, okay, y'all duke it out. Who do you think is going to win?
[22:33] It's hands down, no question. The man's man, the tough and rough and tumble guy is going to win every single time. So I'm sure this mindset is in the heart of Isaac and he just likes him better.
[22:49] He wants to give his blessing to this son who would represent his likes and his wishes and his will more so than Jacob. But if I was a godly friend of Isaac, you know what?
[23:04] I'd go up to him and say, Isaac, man, what are you doing? Do you not remember what God said to Rebecca, your wife, when she prayed? And I'm sure, you know, remember when she shared it with you?
[23:17] That the older is going to serve the younger and that even though he's stronger, it says that your youngest son, Jacob, is going to be the one that's going to have the blessing.
[23:29] Are you, are you trying to undo what God has already declared he's going to do? There's a willingness to ignore the declaration of God that he gave and do things his own way.
[23:48] It doesn't reflect a guy that is surrendered to God and full of faith in God. He's going to do it how he wants to do it because he's the father and he's going to give the blessing.
[23:59] And there's some sense that this blessing is a one-time thing is what it seems like in the scriptures because if you were to flip over to verse 37 where Esau comes back and says, don't you have another blessing?
[24:17] And he says, behold, I've made him Lord over you and all his brothers. I've given him servants and grain and wine and I don't have anything left.
[24:28] I've already given it to him. It's as if it is a one-time blessing. It has a spiritual component to it. And we'll see more about how Isaac handles this whole thing as we walk through.
[24:47] But let me step into Rebecca. Let's look at Rebecca. So you've got the patriarch. You've got Isaac, the man who is the man of God according to Christ. And what I mean by that, he says, I am the God of Isaac.
[25:02] He's mine. And then Rebecca, notice what she did. She's like, either she's eavesdropping, which the scripture does not say that, or she just happened to be, it is a tent and sound does carry.
[25:17] So she's in the tent and she overhears this conversation about, hey, I'm ready to bless you. I'm ready to give you the blessing that you would be the spiritual head going forward, that you receive the covenant promises of God that came to Abraham and came to me.
[25:32] I'm going to give them to you as your father. It's what I'm, it's in essence what he's saying. You're going to be the spiritual head of the family. Totally in opposition to what God said. And Rebecca heard it and said, no, no, no, no, no.
[25:42] Uh-uh. Golly, this is serious. I'm putting my own spin on this, okay? That isn't exactly how it's articulated in the scripture. But notice what she does.
[25:55] Rebecca tries to aid God in fulfilling his promise. Do you think she remembered what God had told her that the younger will serve the older? Sure she does. And here she is trying to twist it so that she can accomplish what she knows ought to be accomplished.
[26:14] Her faith in God is not very strong here, is it? Instead of saying, God, I know you're almighty, I know you're sovereign, I know you're able, I know you're going to figure out a way.
[26:25] Instead of going to prayer and saying, God, I'm surrendering this to you, I'm submitting it to you for you to handle, she says, I need to take care of this now. If I don't take care of this, this is going to really be a big problem.
[26:38] My husband is going to go against, I can't talk, go against what God has declared. I can't let him do that. I've got to help God here. And what's she do?
[26:49] She comes up with this plan. She calls her younger son, Jacob, who is much more compliant in his own right. And she says, hey, here's what we need to do.
[27:00] We're going to trick him. I'm going to get a couple of goats, which by the way, do you think deer and goat taste alike? Why is she going to get two goats when he's going out to get a deer?
[27:13] And venison is a lot different than goat. She probably already knows that his taste buds are gone. He can't tell the difference between goat and deer. And evidently, he couldn't as we walk through the story because he ate goat and thought it was deer.
[27:26] He thought it was from the field. So his condition must have been pretty bad in this scenario. So she knew that she could trick him with a different food, with goats.
[27:39] And then she had this brainstorm. I'm going to take the hair off the goat. I'm going to tape it on. Or I'm going to wrap it around you so when he feels you, he's going to feel all that hair and think, oh yeah, of course it's Esau.
[27:52] I don't know what I can do for your voice, but let's just hope he can't hear real well. And so she said, and he says, listen, Jacob is over 40 years old here.
[28:04] He's a man. And his mom's coming to him and saying, I want you to do this thing which you know is not right, but we got to trick him or else you're going to miss out on this. We got to help God and make sure this comes to pass.
[28:15] And he said, wait a minute, what if he fills my neck and fills my hands? He knows it's not me. And she had a plan, right? She comes up with all this, I'm going to give you garments so that when he smells, he's going to smell him.
[28:30] I want you to lie. I want you to tell him that you're Esau. We've got to trick him so he blesses you. Are you with me? Come on, you with me? Let's go. And if I were a friend of Rebecca, godly friend, and I went to her, I said, Rebecca, what are you doing?
[28:47] Why are you trying to control this situation? Do you not have any faith in God? Do you not think God's able to handle this situation? The God who spoke the world into existence, you've seen this play itself out as you walked and you washed it in the life of Abraham.
[29:04] And you lived it in your life. You've seen the faith of God, how he's, what he's done, how he's blessed. And yet, she wouldn't believe it.
[29:17] So you're just like, Rebecca, no, no, no, no. Have faith. God will make this come to pass. You don't have to help him. You don't want to talk your son into doing that which is sinful.
[29:29] Why do you want him to be deceptive? Why are you willing to deceive? Come on. That's not the way to live a God-honoring life. And then we look at Jacob, a 40-year-old guy who lets his mom talk him into something that's utterly sinful.
[29:47] Where is he to say, no, no, that's not right. Mom, that is not right. We should not deceive him like that. That's not the way we're supposed to live.
[29:58] That would be dishonoring to my father. But instead, what does he say? He says, Mom, I'm not worried about what's right and wrong in a sense. I'm just worried about success. Is this thing going to work?
[30:09] Yes, I want the spiritual blessing. Have you noticed as we've read through the text, not just this morning but previously, that he was interested in spiritual things.
[30:20] He desired the birthright, which is the spiritual leadership of the family. There's some desire. He's leaning that way. He's just going about it the wrong way.
[30:30] He's trying to accomplish something out of his own deception, his own man-made wisdom. And it's utterly sinful.
[30:43] Again, remember the expectation I talked about? Surely God would pick godly men, men that are full of faith, that are honoring to him to accomplish his plan to fulfill his promise, right?
[30:57] Well, we got two strikeouts going on. We got two guys that are not walking by faith, that are trying to do things in their own way, full of sin, and yet, for some reason, God is going to use them and the promise is going through these men.
[31:17] Hard to fathom. But I want you to see as this plays itself out, so the meal takes place, he blesses him with this powerful blessing that echoes Genesis 12, 3, the blessing of Abraham.
[31:37] And I would say this, it has a spiritual element to it predominantly. Yes, there's material, there's land, there's his possessions, they're involved in this, but it is a conveyance of the spiritual head of the family.
[31:55] It's a spiritual blessing upon this child. And then, what happens? And then, as he's walking out the door, you can almost see it in the movie, right?
[32:07] You got, he's taking a step out and in the back door, guess who's coming in? Hey, pop, I got some food for you. Man, I've been out to the field, he's like, wait a minute, I am so confused.
[32:18] Who are you? Well, I'm your son, I'm your son Esau. And what does the scripture say took place at that moment? Verse 33 is a pivotal verse in this section.
[32:31] And verse 33 says this, Isaac trembled very violently. At that moment, when he understood what had just taken place, is that he had been duped, he had been deceived by his younger son who had pretended to be Esau, and he had come in, and he had given the blessing to him, and then, I mean, to Jacob, sorry, and then when Isaac comes in, he shudders violently.
[33:05] I'm messing names up. When Esau comes in, Isaac shudders violently. Why? It's because he realized right then that he had gone against the will of God.
[33:15] He realized his sin. He recognized that he had done exactly what he shouldn't have done. That is, he's given the blessing to the one he shouldn't have, but because of the circumstances, the blessing landed on the son that it should have landed on, and at that moment, I think that he was struck with his sin.
[33:35] At some point, we will notice this, is that if we look, skip ahead to 28, so in 27, Jacob is blessed by deception, but in 28, I want you to notice that Jacob is blessed by intention.
[34:00] Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and then if you look down at the verse three, God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, may give you the blessing of Abraham.
[34:15] Do you see the difference? His intention was to bless the wrong son, and God didn't let it happen. Even though the deception and conniving was involved, ultimately, the will of God would not have allowed it.
[34:32] Did God need Rebecca to help him? Did God need Jacob to deceive? No. They did that on their own volition, but I do want you to notice that what God had declared came to pass, and this is the first point.
[34:48] If y'all are looking for, okay, what's the main point here? Let me just share this. Is that God, excuse me, sorry, the sovereign plan of God will be accomplished in spite of the sinful desires and plans of men and women.
[35:04] Let me say it again. The sovereign will of God, the sovereign plan of God will be accomplished. There's no power or force on all the earth can change what God has planned.
[35:20] We might not understand how it comes to pass. God takes even the sinful actions of people and he weaves his plan, accomplishes his will, even though they did it out of their own volition.
[35:35] God in his sovereignty is able to cause things to come to pass, his plan to come to pass. He had already declared it, right? And when I, when this recognition hit Isaac, he recognized that he had purposefully done what, it was opposite of what God had declared.
[36:00] He recognizes sin and I believe that there's a repentance from here forward. We see that blessing that is actually as if he is honoring the will of God and say he will be blessed.
[36:15] You know why? It's because God declared it. He knows that God declared it and yet he ignored it because of his own personal selfish desires and now he's become aware, oh no, wow, did I just do that?
[36:30] Did I just intend to do just the opposite of what God had intended? Am I trying to come against the plan of God? What have I done? Esau, we don't see anything godly in Esau either, do we?
[36:52] Matter of fact, if we were to turn again to Hebrews, which we've done in previous weeks here, we would see a guy who is sexually immoral and how does that play itself out?
[37:04] Well, he's marrying Canaanite women because he's lusting after that type of a life. He is willing to go against the decree of Abraham his grandfather, the declarer that you shall not take a wife from the Canaanites and we see it again over here that that declaration is made by Isaac again when he gave a direction to Jacob, don't take a wife from this Canaanite tribe, you go back and you take a wife from our people and yet Esau could care less.
[37:45] He's doing his own thing, his own way. Esau could care less about spiritual things. This whole headship and family, you know what he wanted? He wanted all the wealth, he wanted all the privilege, he wanted to be able to make all the decisions.
[38:00] He wasn't interested in spiritual things. Even when he's crying, even saying, God, Father, bless me, bless me, bless me. It's not the spiritual element of it that he's interested in.
[38:11] It's all the other things. It's the wealth, it's the esteem, it's the leadership that he wants. We see his heart, he's willing to entertain murder.
[38:27] His intention because he's so mad is he's going to kill his brother. He's going to fix this problem. One way or the other, he's going to get that blessing. He's going to get the wealth that comes from being the older son.
[38:47] I wrote a note over here in Hebrews and it says this, his desire was for worldly gain and pleasure. He treated spiritual things with contempt.
[39:00] The word of God says that no one is, the author of Hebrews is instructing the readers of the letter. he said, see to it that no one is sexually immoral and unholy like Esau.
[39:14] A willingness to walk outside the boundaries of what God had called him to. What do you notice about his family?
[39:26] There's one more thing Rebecca here has not done, is she? She overhears or she learns of, somebody comes and tells her, say, hey, by the way, you've got a problem going on.
[39:40] Just want to make you aware that Esau's plan is to kill Jacob. Time your husband dies, their dad dies, that he intends to kill him.
[39:50] And she said, oh man, I got to fix this problem too. And so what does she do? She goes to him and said, I loathe these Hittite women, these wives that are just destroying our family.
[40:02] please, please send Jacob away to marry one of our people. Send him to my brother, Laban, and let him take a wife there.
[40:14] And so what does he do? He's like, oh yeah. So Isaac's like, yes, of course. Why did I ever let Esau marry Canaanite women?
[40:25] What was I thinking? That is not what God desires. So yes, he calls him in and he blesses him and says, do not take a wife from here. I want you to go to Laban. I want you to take a wife from there.
[40:35] Go. And what did he do? He took off. Do you see the controlling hand of Rebekah in this? You see how she's conniving even here? She's like, I've got to protect him.
[40:46] I've got to keep him from being killed by his older brother. And so I'm going to come up with a plan where surely Isaac will hear the wisdom in this and he'll do it. Well, did he? Yes. This family, it is a mess.
[41:05] I don't know that Rebekah ever saw her son again. This one that she favored who she's trying to help stay alive sent him away and said, you stay there until I call you back.
[41:16] Did she ever call him back? Never did. She died in childbirth, I believe, if I remember correctly. Now, you don't hold me to that, but we'll hear it as we go forward.
[41:29] The second point is this. is that sin always causes chaos and destruction. Sin always causes chaos and destruction.
[41:42] Do you see it? Do you see destroyed relationships here? Do you see chaos in their family? Deception, they're not honoring each other, they're not living faith-filled lives.
[41:55] They're doing things their own way, they're manipulating, they're willing to walk head first into sin, they know it's sin and they're doing it anyway? You know, and it begs the question to me, it begs this question, God, why would you choose to use men whose lives are messed up like that?
[42:19] Why would you do that? I mean, of all the people you could have used, why do you choose these two men? they don't follow you in faith, they don't even do what they're, they don't honor you, they're willing to be bold face in their sin?
[42:39] Do you see yourselves anywhere in this story? have y'all ever deceived anyone?
[42:53] Have you ever come up with a plan to say, I'm going to figure out how to get my way and I'm going to trick somebody to get my way? Have y'all ever hated someone so much that you'd be willing to kill them or at least hurt them or at least get back and retaliate?
[43:10] have you ever tricked someone by lying over and over and over and over and over again to try to get your way?
[43:28] You know what's true of all of us? There's not a single one of us in here, especially before we were in the kingdom that's faithful to God, that honors God, that's free of sin.
[43:40] You know, none of us are worthy of being chosen to be used by God, are we? Not one of us. All of us are full of sin. You know what?
[43:51] Isaac and Jacob were not worthy to be used by God. It's not like they were godly men. You know what? They were broken men in need of life change. They needed the touch of God.
[44:04] They weren't able to be faithful without the touch of God. You know what? Neither are we. but by the grace of God that God would change our heart. Do you remember a time in your life when you lived for self?
[44:20] You know it's true for all of us in whatever version or whatever form that takes. That is the natural condition man. God is that we are focused on self. Until God comes and touches us and brings us into his kingdom through salvation through faith in his promised son Jesus none of us are going to be faithful.
[44:43] None of us are going to honor God. We're always going to walk in that sin path. It's different for all of us but we need the life change that God brings through his son Jesus Christ.
[44:55] Amen? Apart from God changing Isaac and changing his heart and showing him his sin he would continue to go down that road but by the grace of God you know what God did?
[45:10] He chose him. He said you're mine. And you know what he did to Jacob? This guy who was willing to lie to his father over and over again. Even when he said are you sure?
[45:22] You're my son Esau. Yes sir. There I am. God needed to change his heart too. You know what? God needs to change all of our hearts and perhaps that's already happened in your life.
[45:38] Has there been a time in each of your lives when you've recognized your sin and you've recognized that God's provided a Messiah Savior so that we could be in relationship with him so that we can be his?
[45:51] you know apart from God's touch and God's draw we'll never know him. Apart from God saying even in your sin I'm going to love you anyway and I'm going to draw you into this relationship with me through an understanding of your sin a recognition of how that separates you from me and I'm going to let you I'm going to share with you the powerful life of Jesus so that you understand that he lived and died in your place so that you could be related to me so that you could receive my salvation.
[46:33] It's my hope that all of you have understood the need for his touch and his draw in your life. Let's pray. Father it is shocking to me how you take sinful men and you change them.
[46:53] God you change them so much that their life is different. God how you show them their sin. You show us our sin. And Father you transform our lives.
[47:06] You give us a new heart. Your word says that you'll take our heart of stone and you will change it out with the heart of flesh. One that is tender to you. One that honors you and you will give to us your Holy Spirit that we might know you.
[47:21] We might be marked by you. So God for all of us this morning Lord we want to embrace this truth that is so apparent here is that you are sovereign in every way and your will will be accomplished.
[47:37] God help us to walk by faith and help us not to walk in sin and manipulation and lies and Lord help us to trust you in every way in our lives.
[47:49] For those of us in the kingdom God those of us who are Christians I pray that you would give us faith. Help us to walk in faith like the apostle said increase our faith and so God would you increase the faith of all of us who are Christians this morning and if there's anyone here that's not a Christian father would you show them their sin and really the rebellion it is against you and God would you by grace would you show them why Christ came and died so that they might know you.
[48:18] God would you grant salvation to those here that need it this morning I pray in your name. Amen.